I do not own Pokemon
He didn't know how long he spent on that tree, but when his eyes opened, it was already night. His stomach groaned in hunger. He needed to find something to eat, and he needed it fast. He saw Vike resting on another branch immediately jumping and gliding in his lap. He must have been as hungry as he was.
Still weak from the poison, Parker reached the ground, noticing some claw marks on the tree that were not present the night before. He frowned while looking at them, promising himself to never sleep on the ground again.
He took a few steps, on high alert for a potentially angry Nidorino or Nidorina tailing him and Vike.
"Fly up and tell me if you see something." Vike fluttered, then took off, following him from a few meters up.
They walked for a while, going north, when all of a sudden Vike dived next to his trainer, screeching in alarm. Parker barely had the time to turn around to notice something darting out of the tall grass, a horned figure jumped at them, claws extended and swiping at the Zubat, leaving a noticeable mark on Vike. As the figure landed, Parker could observe the sky-blue pokemon with dark blue patches, a large set of ears and a vengeful look. They had found the mother.
"Shit! Vike! Supersonic!" shouted Parker, cocking back his fist. As Zubat opened his mouth, the wild pokemon seemed distracted for a second, trying to shake off the disorientation of Zubat's move. Parker had no idea what he was about to do, but he let his instincts take over, his fist cocking back and dashing forward, fast enough as to leave lines of blurred movements, like a comet. His hook landed on the Nidorina's snout, immediately followed by a second punch that decked the pokemon into the eye, then a hammer blow at the top of her and a powerful uppercut that forced the Nidorina to take a couple steps back. Parker smiled. He had no idea when he had learned Comet Punch, but the move was clearly working.
Nidorina roared, jumping at him at full force. Parker tried to dodge, but his enemy was too fast. The pokemon twisted herself in mid-air, landing a powerful kick to his side. The impact knocked the wind out of him, but he took it in stride. Then came the second one. It impacted the same spot as the first one, and Parker could feel something in his rib cage cracking. He knew pokemons could be a lot stronger than humans, but all his readings about the incredible strength of something like a Machamp could never drive the point home just like being used as target practice for a Double Kick. His father had at one point made him the target practice for a newly hatched Tyrogue, but that pokemon's strength had been nothing compared to the Nidorina in front of him. He fell to one knee, holding his ribcage.
With a screech, Vike swooped down, his fangs firmly planted on the back of Nidorina's neck as he started to drink up.
Nidorina seemed to forget about Parker, the human launching a powerful Leer at the wild pokemon. Once again his instincts took over. There was something to the way he looked at the Nidorina, something more than a simple look.
The Nidorina swung wildly, the effects of Vike's confusion and her own attempts to attack the Zubat causing her to claw herself, her sharp fingers leaving surprisingly deep lacerations on the side of her skull, while Vike continued to drink up her blood.
Without missing a beat, Parker charged in again, slamming his entire body weight into a Tackle, poshing the wild pokemon to the ground and immediately jumped away. Nidorina looked around, apparently still dazed and confused, but somehow managed to swipe at the Zubat attached to her neck, his fangs deep into her skin drinking up all her blood. Her eyes suddenly snapped back into focus, a deathly glare at the human, and Parker recognized the way she was standing. She would charge in with another Double Kick. He raised his guard, ready to Endure the strikes.
The blows came hard, both kicks blocked by his arms, but the sheer strength behind them left his arms trembling from the impact. He tried to swing, preparing another Comet Punch, but his arms were shaking too much, his swings going wild.
Vike doubled down on his attack, the Nidorina's attention once more drawn to the leech on her neck, the wound now deep enough that blood started to overflow, painting her back from blue to a deep crimson. She started to Scratch wildly, covering the Zubat with wounds. The two pokemons were now panting, both bloodied and winded, when Parker came in with another Comet Punch. Hook. Jab. Uppercut. He smirked with satisfaction as he saw one of Nidorina's teeth knocked out of her mouth. Barely standing, the pokemon slumbered forward, when Vike suddenly jumped off her back, blood erupting from Nidorina's neck like a red geyser. The pokemon howled in pain one last time before falling on the ground, her life slipping away.
Parker slumped. They won. He winced again, feeling all the cracks in his rib and his forearms, but they had won. Arceus's sake, that Nidorina hit like a ton of bricks. He was sure one more hit and he'd be dead, and judging by Vike's looks, he wouldn't be able to take more than a couple of hits either. And yet, the Zubat seemed extremely excited for some reason, yapping at him as if trying to show him something just over the grass.
Despite the pain, the hunger and the total inability of both of them to defend themselves from even a Mankey, he decided to humor his pokemon. After all, he'd certainly be dead without him. Ignoring the protests of his body, he got up and followed Vike across the grass, to a small rock no more than five steps away.
Parker's eyes widened in shock. It was a nest. A pokemon nest with three giant, succulent eggs. He didn't have a fire to cook them, but at the moment, he didn't care. He practically jumped on the closest one, grabbing a rock and started tapping it on the top. The shell gave way, reeling the golden yolk.
"Vike, I love you." he muttered, before gorging himself on the egg. Without missing a beat, Vike jumped on a second egg, biting through the shell and started lapping at an egg almost half his size.
Parker took a deep sigh, tossing away the empty shell and tapping his stomach. Raw eggs didn't exactly taste good, but he was hungry and he didn't care. Vike was still lapping at his egg and even though he would probably never be able to eat it all, the Zubat seemed very determined to try.
He smiled, then shifted his focus on the last egg. He looked at his curiously, holding it close. There was no way for him to determine when it would hatch, or even if it would hatch. He didn't have a stable source of food, would it be better to just stack up on fat for a little bit? Or should he wait for it to hatch? If he waited too long, the egg would no longer be edible…
He shrugged. He probably wouldn't be able to eat two whole pokemon eggs right now anyway. It was probably best to leave such a decision for the morning. He looked around, searching for the closest tree to climb onto. Once spotted, he carefully held onto the egg and started walking towards it.
"C'mon on, Vike, help me for a moment. You can come back to your egg when I'm done."
Vike screeched, clearly annoyed, but followed his trainer regardless, helping him to reach the tree before returning to his meal.
Parked slid the egg beneath his now barely recognizable team Rocket shirt, he slid into the hollow trunk, curled into a ball and forced himself to sleep despite not being tired. Sure, he was hurt and his body needed to rest, but his mind was another matter entirely. His thoughts went back to the battle with the Nidorina, at how he acted and what he did. Now that he had the time to analyze the fight, he noticed himself using not one but four pokemon moves: Tackle, Leer, Comet Punch and Endure.
He wasn't sure how that was possible, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Vike's attacks were much stronger after his Leer and that Nidorina's Double Kick would have killed him had he not held onto life with that move.
Was that the evidence that humans were, in fact, another type of pokemon? If he was a more intellectual individual, he would have pondered the possibilities that that revelation implied, the implication about human typing, whether he could trap himself into a pokeball all the way to the nature of existence itself. Instead, he could only think of himself learning powerful moves like Hyper Beam, Draco Meteor or Thunder Punch. He started to fantasize about fighting a Gyarados and he spent a few hours fantasizing about how cool he'd be during his battle.
Still unable to sleep, Parker got up relatively at dawn, his body having recuperated completely. Another pokemon trait? With a shrug, he got up, taking the egg from under his shirt, and left the trunk. He saw Vike sleeping on one of the branches and smiled.
He lifted the egg up. He decided that, despite his eagerness to have another pokemon, it should probably wait until he got his hands on a more reliable way to make food. Perhaps he could learn a fire move to handle the cooking? Maybe Ember? Will-O-Wisp? Flamethrower? Fire Blast? He would probably need a TM, but how would that be? Interrupting his musings, he returned his focus to the egg. He started tapping on the top, gently breaking up the shell, then peeled off the first fragment. Unlike the previous egg, however, he didn't see the yolk, but the fully formed claw of a female Nidoran. Before he could think of what to do, the pokemon started to stir in response to Parker's interference. He gently put the egg on the ground, watching in fascination as the pokemon forced his claw through the broken shell, tearing up the hole a bit before retracting back into the shell. The egg tilted, falling to one side as the pokemon stirred. A head poked out of the hole, pushing its way through, slowly enlarging the crack until the Nidoran was completely out, looking at Parker with big, extremely expressive red eyes.
"Well, it turns out I didn't need to make any choice in the end…"
He opened his arms, slowly approaching the pokemon and caressed her head. He immediately noticed the sticky substance on the pokemon and sighed, taking off his beret.
"It's not like I really need this one…" and started to clean off a somewhat hesitant Nidoran.
"You know… I was going to make a pancake, but I suppose I have to find you a name instead… Pancake…How about Pan?"
The pokemon didn't respond, but leaned towards him, no longer resisting him cleaning her.
"Pan it is then."
He winced as he felt a familiar burning sensation on one of his fingers and looked at his hand, a single drop of blood dripping from it. The sensation was far less intense than what it was the first time, but it still hurt. Swiftly, he got his finger in his mouth and tried to suck off the poison. He felt the burning sensation lowering into a mild numbness as he tasted blood. He spat on the ground, looking back on Pan.
"I get the feeling I'll have to learn how to deal with that, don't I?"
Pan looked at him with expectant eyes.
"I suppose you're too young to understand me. I suppose I should also thank that for your poison being weaker…"
He sighed, picking up the Nidoran in his arms and moved to wake up Vike. The Zubat tilted his head at the newborn, slowly approaching it while sniffing the air. Once he was close enough, he opened his mouth and licked Pan's snout, causing her to make a weird noise that reminded Parker of a giggle. With a smile, he turned his head north, looking at the scree that awaited him only a few hundred meters in front.
Unsurprisingly, it only took a few steps in the tall grass for the group to encounter a wild Pidgey.
Notes
Boss fight: lvl 16 Nidorina (Rivalry) vs lvl 9 Vike and Parker
Yeah, Rivalry in this situation helps out Parker and Vike, without it they would have lost.
Say hello to Pan! I've always had a soft spot for the Nidoran line, whenever I play a Kanto game I catch one in route 2 and they carry me all the way to the elite 4.
The line between humans and pokemons is getting blurry. I wanted to hint at a few head canon in the pokemon world, but not dwell too deep into that, so the choice of having Parker be... I'm not sure what the opposite of an academic is, but that's what I made him. He just doesn't think of asking himself these questions, and when he does he gets bored/distracted before reaching an answer. If anyone wants to take inspiration from those prompts, I encourage to do so